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Owner of old MacCube looking to upgrade needs advice.

Q

qor1979

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
7
0
I currently own a Mac Cube. Yes you can pick your jaw up off the ground. Yes it's really old and outdated and as slow as my grandma. But it is a classic as far as I know. It was all I had money for at the time and haven't been able to replace yet.

Now I do have the funds for a new computer and will only buy Mac from now on.

I'm looking at the iMac 3.06ghz with 4gb ram and the GeForce 8800 w/512ram.

I have a few concerns I'm hoping someone here can clear up for me. I've looked at some sites but this seems the friendliest and most informed site so far.

First, I am a gamer. I play most games on my xbox360. I love xbox live. I know that the iMac is not famous for gaming. I know I could get a cheaper, arguably more powerful custom built PC for less $. I don't need the iMac for intensive, hardcore gaming. What I want out of it is faster performance for everyday applications which I know I'll get compared to my current dinosaur.

But at the same time what I really want is a computer for RTS games which my trusty 360 just can't do with the gamepad. I'm interested in the Star Wars RTS "Empire at War," since I heard about it a while ago but could not play it on my fossil.

Furthermore and very important to me is that my new computer be able to run the upcoming Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

I know this killer 3.06ghz iMac will do what I need for day to day use just fine. But am I being too hasty? I want so badly to play the new Blizzard games since I've been out of the PC gaming for some time. Should I wait for some new iMac or will the current top of the line model work admirably for Blizzard's new line?

I know what you're thinking. Why would I bust $2700 or more on an iMac just to play Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3? I'll do more than that with it, but it's important to me that those two games specifically work well.

Also how does this "bootcamp" thing I've heard about work? Will I be able to buy Windows games for my new iMac right out of the box? Is bootcamp windows xp or just an apple program to run windows?

thanks,

qor
 
Q

qor1979

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
7
0
Oh yes and another question.

I have a 40" lcd 1080p tv and use the vga input for my Mac Cube. I want to use this tv for the new computer i buy. It also has HDMI inputs. If I get this new iMac do I need to get an miniDVI to DVI adapter and then a DVI to HDMI cable? Is there no miniDVI to HDMI directly? Will I lose some quality with two cables over using just one? Should I use a miniDVI to DVI DVI to VGA instead? Will I be able to do that cool trick where I have both the iMac monitor and the tv connected thus doubling the screen space? Will i also be able to turn off the iMac screen and have it project directly onto my tv? Will this lower framerates? Is it even worth it or should I just stick to the 24" iMac screen?
 
B

belunos

macrumors member
Aug 10, 2008
72
0
I'll try to answer as best as I can.

I think the iMac with the 8800gs will play just about any game just dandy. Obviously you're not going to get jaw dropping FPS in games like crysis, but you have to spend like an extra $1000 on PC video just to do that. Blizzard especially is really good about supporting Macs. While the screenshots of those two new games look great, they always perform some kind of voodoo whereby their games play famously on any kind of equipment.

Yes, bootcamp works like a champ. I don't know if it's just zealotry, but a lot of people claim Windows works better on Mac hardware than a lot of PC equipment. Bootcamp works out of the box for bootcamp, and supplies Windows drivers for all the equipment. It's kind of a pain to have to use Windows, but gaming support is far superior on that platform. In any case, I think you'll be covered.

Now, I don't know about the miniDV->DVI->HDMI question. That is, I don't know if it will work. It should, my TV only has a DVI connection, so I have to use HDMI->DVI connector, and it works great. I can say that it will either work, or not. If it works, it'll work great. It's all digital, so I doubt you'll experience signal loss from doing it. And it should allow you to do dual screen, and thus allow you to use both your displays independently. But yea, it'll either work exactly like you want, or it won't work at all, so no real inbetween.

In summation, adding an iMac with the 8800 was a huge boost to gaming capabilities on the mid range mac platform. The GS isn't as fast as the GT, but it'll get the job done very well.
 
Q

qor1979

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
7
0
Thanks. So then I feel silly asking this but, is windows already installed on bootcamp or do I have to buy it separate?

And I've been reading up about this company Aspyr that does ports of PC games for use on the Macs. What is better: getting the games like CoD 4 from Aspyr or using this Bootcamp and buying the regular Windows versions? If I do the later will that saddle me with the whole "gotta download a bunch of video and sound and whatever else drivers for Windows" like I used to have to do on my old PC tower?
 
M

m1stake

macrumors 68000
Jan 17, 2008
1,518
3
Philly
Bootcamp by a mile. Don't worry about playing D3 or SC2, blizzard makes games that run on ANYTHING.

Blizzard being Blizzard, you'll be able to play those in OSX. It will be neat to see if there is a performance difference however, since Apple doesn't give a **** about optimizing their OpenGL.
 
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